AGEM SF6

SF6 Introduction

Air Gas Electronic Materials (AGEM) is a major supplier of Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6) to the Electronic and Semiconductor, Power, R&D and Institute.

AGEM supplies various purity of SF6 with grade ranging to Circuit breaker, Gas Insulated substation, Electric, laser, chemical, military, space aviation, physical research and electronic & semiconductor applications and as per the industrial requirements.

AGEM can offer the process of purification crude SF6 or recycled SF6 from 99% (2N grade) to 99.9999% (6N grade) based on customer requirements.

We have an advanced solution to meet the difficulties in stock pile up of used SF6 over the time. It includes the benefits as mentioned below:

Collect the used SF6 from the customer’s used stock pile
Recycle the SF6 using advanced purification methods
Re-supply the purified SF6 to the customer as per their requirements
Customer free from the old pile of used SF6 stock.
Hassle free management of used SF6 stock.
Lower cost of purchase for recycled & purified SF6.
Performance and quality of product unaffected.
Eco-friendly measures to reduce global warming.
Gains of carbon credits & social reputations encouraged.

Packaging Details

Various capacity of Cylinders 1kg to 58 kgs
600 kg tonners
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Sulfur Hexafluoride ( SF6 )

A colorless, odorless, non-flammable, non-reactive, non-toxic gas.

Excellent thermal stability, does not decompose at temperatures above 500°C in pure form. It has excellent electrical insulation and arc extinguishing properties, and insulation capacity is 2.5 times more than Air & Nitrogen. Useful in Synthetic / Analytical chemistry.

Component	Grade Purity	Grade - I 99.995%	Grade - II 99.999%
	N2	20	2
	O2 + Ar	10	1
	CO	1	0.1
	CO2	1	0.1
	CF4	10	0.5
	Acidity (HF)	0.1	0.3
	Moisture (H2O)	2	0.5
	Mineral Oil	5	-
	THC	-	0.3

Packaging Details

Grade	Packaging Specifications
Grade	Cylinder Size (WC)	Fill Content (Kg)	Standard Valve
Grade – I	3	1 kg to 3.75kg	CGA 590
	6.8	4 kg to 8.5kg	CGA 590
	10	9kg to 12.5 kg	CGA 590
	15	13kg to 19kg	CGA 590
	24	20kg to 30kg	CGA 590
	40	30kg to 50 kg	CGA 590
	47	50kg to 58 kg	CGA 590
	Certificate of Analysis Included. Individual or batch Certificate of Analysis available on request.
Grade – II	3	3	CGA 590
	10	11	CGA 590
	24	25	CGA 590
	40	50	CGA 590
	47	50	CGA 590
	Certificate of Analysis Included. Individual or batch Certificate of Analysis available on request.

Technical Data

Molecular Weight	146.055 g/mole
Specific Volume	2.65 cf/lb @ 70°F & 1 ATM
Flammability Limits	Non-flammable
Melting Point	-50.8°C (-59.4°F)
Critical Temperature	45.5°C (113.9°F)
Gas Density	0.3847 lb/ft3

MAIN APPLICATIONS
Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) is an excellent dielectric gas for high voltage applications. It is chemically inert, gaseous even at low temperature, non flammable, non toxic, non corrosive. Its combined chemical, thermal and electrical properties allow many advantages to be achieved.

SF6 allows simplified design of high and medium voltage switchgears because of size and weight reduction, quiet and reliable handling and maintenance. Outstanding properties are its dielectric strength and dielectric constant unchanged from a few Hz up to several GHz, and such as arc quenching properties to prevent arc from occurring while its molecular fragments rapidly recombine after the source of arc is removed. Furthermore the high molar heat capacity and low viscosity enables it to transfer heat very effectively.

SF6 is used in several non-electric and electronic applications. Processes have been developed for magnesium casting in which a protective atmosphere of SF6 based gas mixture prevent the formation of undesirable byproducts. Other foundry applications are those employing N2/SF6 mixtures in aluminum casting as refining and degassing agents. SF6 is also used in the semi-conductor industry, as etching gases for plasma etching or as cleaning gases to clean the chambers after the etching process.

Several minor applications are regarding leak detection, tracer gas studies, loud speakers and lasers.
Electric Grade

Application as dielectric gas
- Gas insulated high voltage circuit breakers and other switchgears Gas insulated power transmission lines and power distribution substations, High voltage transformers, linear accelerators, coaxial cables, waveguides, switches,x-ray apparatus and capacitors.
Electric Grade

High Purity Grade Application
- Etching agent for the plasma processing
Metallurgic Grade

Foundry Applications and metal casting
- Component of inert atmosphere during the primary casting of Aluminum and Magnesium. Refining agent for Aluminum foundry applications. N2 / SF6 gas mixtures (5 – 10 % by volume of SF6) are employed to refine pure Aluminum or its alloys at melt temperatures in the range 650 – 750 °C. SF6 is a source of fluorine atoms reacting in the melt and removing inclusions of H2, oxides, particles and other casting impurity.
Medical Use
- SF6 is used to provide a tamponade or plug of a retinal hole in retinal detachment repair operations in the form of a gas bubble. It is inert in the vitreous chamber and initially doubles its volume in 36 hours before being absorbed in the blood in 10–14 days. SF6 is used as a contrast agent for ultrasound imaging. Sulfur hexafluoride microbubbles are administered in solution through injection into a peripheral vein. These microbubbles enhance the visibility of blood vessels to ultrasound. This application has been used to examine the vascularity of tumours. It remains visible in the blood for 3 to 8 minutes, and is exhaled by the lungs.
Regulations or standards regarding SF6 and its by products

The IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) has several SF6 standards in place including:
- IEC 603776 that defines SF6 quality and detection techniques for use in electrical equipment, and gives general information about the gas and its environmental effects.
- IEC 62271 regarding how to handle SF6 and its mixtures.
- IEC 60480 about effects on human health, handling, and disposal of SF6 byproducts.
- IEC 60068 on how to determine SF6 leakages.
Equipment details where SF6 used
- Gas Insulated Switchgear – High and Medium Voltage
- Circuit Breakers
- Power Transformer
- Voltage Transformer
- Current Transformer
- RMU – Ring Main Unit
- Assemblies of HV Devices and GIL ( Gas insulated line)
- Capacitor

Background

SF6 has been proven as an excellent material for high voltage insulation, it and has been widely used in this applications for decades.

However, it has extremely high global warming potential (GWP) which is almost the worst material among the chemicals known today.

More and more countries are trying to reduce the usage of SF6 or to phase out this material in the field applications. However, the alternative materials are either not economically practical or poor performance.

The customers who is using it for insulation applications are facing big issues of dealing the used SF6.

The used SF6 are usually

Stored in the cylinders and piled at the customer stock yard;
Returned to the engineering company which performs SF6 replacement;
Vented to the atmosphere etc.

AGEM Capability

Air Gas Electronic Materials Enterprise Co., Ltd (AGEM) is currently purifying SF6 and supplied to the electronic customers covering semiconductor, TFT-LCD (flat panel) etc.

AGEM is supplying SF6 with different grades such as 4N-4N5 for power grid applications and 5N-6N for electronic applications.

We are capable to purify the crude SF6 or recycled SF6 from 99% (2N) to 99.9999% (6N) depending on the customer requirements.

We are also supplying the virgin SF6 to our customers in all of industrial sectors.

We are bringing the value of resolving the customer’s SF6 difficulties once for all as a total solution

We can take the used SF6 from the customer’s old pile;
We can purify the recycled SF6 to meet the customer specifications;
We can supply the re-purified SF6 to the customer

Customer benefits

The Customers will be free from the old piled of used SF6 forever.
Free from the headache of managing where the used SF6 goes forever.
Customer will be benefited from purchasing the re-purified SF6 at the lower cost.
No sacrifice to the product performance.
More over customer will have the benefits of gaining carbon credits.
Also, Benefits of gaining good social reputations.

SF6 purification

The used SF6 is subjected to our purification system. Acid components which were generated by S-F bond dissociation during its service period are removed first. Moreover, acid-free SF6 is dried below 5ppm H2O content in order to prevent clocking the cryogenic purification system. The dried SF6 is going through the cryogenic purification system which removes H2, N2, O2, CO, CO2, and other unwanted impurities in the stream, purified SF6 is finally passed through the particle filter to remove the particles which were introduced in its service journey and purified particle-free SF6 will pass a series of QC to make sure it meets all specification requirements which totally complied with IEC SF6 standard.

The used SF6 is subjected to our purification system.
The acid components which were generated by S-F bond dissociation during its service period are removed first.
The acid-free SF6 is dried below 5ppm H2O content in order to prevent clocking the cryogenic purification system
The dried SF6 is going through the cryogenic purification system which removes H2, N2, O2, CO, CO2, and other unwanted impurities in the stream.
The purified SF6 is finally passed through the particle filter to remove the particles which were introduced in its service journey.
The purified particle-free SF6 will pass a series of QC to make sure it meets all specification requirements which totally complied with IEC SF6 standard.

AGEM SF6

SF6 Introduction

Background

AGEM Capability

Customer benefits

SF6 purification

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